so 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



the crowds. The first commercially successful installation of the 

 Edison incandescent lamps and lighting system was made on the 

 steamship Columbia, which started May 2, 1880, on a voyage around 

 Cape Horn to San Francisco, Calif. 



The carbonized paper filament of the first commercial incandescent 

 lamp was quite fragile. Early in 1880 carbonized bamboo was found 

 to be not only sturdy but made an even better filament than paper. 

 The shape of the bulb was also changed from round to pear shape, 



Dynamo Room, S. S. Columbia. 



The first commercial installation of the Edison Lamp, started 

 May 2, 1880. One of these original dynamos is on exhibit at the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



being blown from one inch tubing. Later the bulbs were blown 

 directly from molten glass. 



As it was inconvenient to connect the wires to the binding posts of 

 a new lamp every time a burned out lamp had to be replaced, a base 

 and socket for it were developed. The earliest form of base con- 

 sisted simply of bending the two wires of the lamp back on the neck 

 of the bulb and holding them in place by wrapping string around 

 the neck. The socket consisted of two pieces of sheet copper in a 

 hollow piece of wood. The lamp was inserted in this, the two-wire 

 terminals of the lamp making contact with the two-sheet copper 

 terminals of the socket, the lamp being rigidly held in the socket by 



